Smoldering Embers
by DarkAngelDreams16
Summary: Embers from a dying fire have to go out sometime...my first maximum ride fanfic IggyxOC FAX!
1. Prologue

**Hey people! This is my first story so please be nice. I do take tips and what not so yea...**

**I have to thank my awesome beta ImJustBeingLittleOlMe! She also has a Maximum Ride story so i recommend you read that!**

**There's one more thing before you continue...DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN MAXIMUM RIDE! IF I DID MAX AND FANG WOULD HAVE GOTTEN TOGETHER FASTER!  
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**Prologue:**

Freedom...the word sends chills down my spine just thinking about it. What I would give to be free; to be able to walk around without a care in the world. Of course that will never happen, considering I've only see the outside world through glances out the windows. Every time I look out of a window, there happens to be flocks of birds flying through the sky. It's almost like they're taunting me because they know I'm trapped down here. At least once I would love to soar through the sky,so I could coast on air streams with the wind whipping through my hair. What I really want to try; bomb diving. I've always wanted to do it, but never had the chance. Imagine, feeling the adrenaline run through your body as you fall closer and closer to Earth, then snapping out your wings, mere feet from the ground. Sounds exhilarating huh?

If you think I'm just daydreaming you are plain WRONG 'cause I can do all that stuff. The problem is that I'm stuck in this hell hole. Being stuck in a cage for 14 years doesn't really give you much room to stretch out your wings. Maybe I should explain some things so that we're on the same page. I'm an Avian-Hybrid. That means my DNA is 98% human and 2% bird,hence the wings. I wasn't born this way, I guess when I was just a baby they took me away from my family and started experimenting on me. Anyway the crazy scientist people (or White-Coats as we experiments like to call them)combined some bird DNA with mine and.

TA-DA made me the hybrid I am today. Okay so not the best explanation but I've never been to a real school before, so cut me some slack!

The place I'm stuck at is called the School, and if you thought your school was bad this one is a MILLION times worse. To be blunt, this place is hell. All the tests they run on you here, well, let's just say they don't show you any mercy what-so-ever. They're really rude too, don't even use my real name, they usually call me 'it' or the number they gave me. Another bad thing is the strong chemical aroma and what not, it burns my nose. It doesn't help when you have a highly developed sense of smell either. Higher senses do come in handy though, especially when your fighting Erasers. Oh, and these Erasers are not the things that are on the end of your pencils, they are Wolf-Hybrids and they are like guards here. There are TONS of them here, so its pretty hard to escape. That's where I am today; thinking of ways to escape.

There's sort of a problem though, I've heard the White-Coats talking about me a lot lately. I don't what they're planning but it's got to do with me and another experiment. They're running more test on me and making me fight more Erasers than usual. With more Erasers to fight I'm forced to use my powers more often too. That's another thing that comes with they hybrid package deal, we get some AWESOME powers. Currently, I have 2 powers, one of them lets me control fire, and the other one is...well I'll just keep that one a secret!  
There's one last thing I guess you should know, and that's my name. Which is,

Experiment 1465342. Just so you don't have to say a mouthful, you can just call me Ember.

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**Hope you enjoyed this little chapter! The next will be up soon (I hope)**

**Anyway until next time:)**

**DarkAngelDreams13**

**See the little review button? I bet its tempting...dont resist the button...  
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	2. Chapter 1

**Well I've been quite busy lately and just haven't had any inspiration to write *sad face* Plus school started up a few days ago *even sadder face* So I decided to go through all my chapters and edit a few tiny things :P So yeah, no new chapters but hopefully soon there will be (: 7/27/11**

**Well as you know I am not JP so I definitely don't own Maximum Ride, only Ember!**

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Chapter 1: Embers POV

My eyes fluttered open to see a bright blue sky. WAIT A SECOND...the sky? I jerked up and examined my environment. I was lying in the middle of a large clearing. I looked around me and guess what I saw? Trees, trees and more trees! I was completely surrounded by them. The forest was so thick, I could barely see past the first line of trees! There's no way I'm gonna try walking through _that_ mess.

The wind blew lightly, sending the field into calm waves; like an ocean. Very peaceful...

ALRIGHTY THEN! Time to figure out why the hell I'm out here.

I stood up and looked around. "ANYONE THERE?", I paused to listen, hoping for a reply, but sadly all I heard was silence.

"Well, so much for that plan." I put my fingers to my chin and 'hmmed'. "What am I supposed to do now?" I thought for a minute before I stated, "Wait a minute, I'm finally free! All I have to do is enjoy this beautiful world I've missed out on."

My eyes wandered back to the sky. The clouds moved slowly across the sky and the wind swirled my dirty blonde hair all around me. That's when I saw them; cute little birds circling above me.

There were 7 of them and I watched them closely, memorizing their style of flight. As they say, you learn something new everyday, and what better way to learn how to fly than from the original fliers themselves? _'Maybe I could fly with them',_ I wondered. As I continued watching them I realized they were kinda big to be birds. 'Erasers' flashed in my mind for a minute, but then I remembered that they couldn't fly.

"What the hell are they then?" I whispered.

I noticed one of the figures start to swoop down towards me. When it landed on the ground I felt the adrenaline rush through my veins, ready for a fight.

The thing was a few inches taller then me and my small 5ft 5 self. I was apparently designed to be shorter so I could blend in with people better, but thats ridiculous since I probably won't ever be around normal people.

What had landed in front of me was a black blob with eyes and wings. Could this day get _any_ weirder?

The blobs wings were brown near the top that faded into ivory near the middle, then white at the bottom with tan specks here and there. I could stare at them forever. They were gorgeous and at least they were natural colors, unlike mine.

"Hey you okay?" said a voice, breaking me out of my trance. I looked around like an idiot until I realized that it was the figure in front of me that had spoken. The voice was feminine so I just assumed that it was a girl.

I tried to tell her I was fine but my voice wouldn't come out. My mouth stayed zipped tight. I tried to move my body and just my luck it didn't move either. '_That's weird, it was working a few minutes ago...'_ I thought to myself

"Guess your not big on talking huh? Great! Just what we need, another Fang... " she mumbled that last part probably thinking I wouldn't hear it.

We just stood there in an awkward silence until she cleared her throat, "Well...you look like you need some help soooo, why don't you come with us?" she asked as she extended her hand to me. I felt myself (unwillingly) nod and walk over to her. As I reached out to take her hand, I hesitated and stepped back a little.

"You don't have to be afraid. You can trust me.", she spoke in a calming voice. I looked right into her gentle, chocolate brown eyes. And that's when I knew I could trust her. I know who's good and who's bad and she was _DEFINITELY_ good. I reached out and grabbed her hand as she said,"My name is M-"

_**BANG**_

I jolted up and looked around. I let out a disappointed sigh, I was still in the school. Lovely...

I saw an Eraser in the room and put the pieces of the puzzle together. Here I was, sleeping uncomfortably in my small cage, when some Eraser thought it would be hi-larious to _'accidentally'_ hit the side of my cage; waking me up in the process. Isn't that nice?

_'I wish I could've figured out what that girls name was. Oh well, It doesn't matter now. It was just a dream'_ I reassured myself.

The Erasers scratchy voice filled my ears, "Have a nice nap my little birdie?"

_'Oh joy it's Paul'_ I let a groan slip through my lips. Yes, I make up names for the Erasers, see how bored I get?

"Aww, I knew my little birdie missed me", he cooed ignoring my groan. I hated it when he called me that because there is no way in hell that I will ever be "his little birdie". I glared at him and turned my head away from him.

"Now now, don't be like that" He stuck one of his hands (paws whatever) into my cage and turned my face back towards him. "We don't want that pretty face of yours to get stuck like that", he said seductively as he stroked my cheek with his thumb. Well he was trying to sound seductive but failed...**EPICALLY!**

No one ,and I mean NO ONE, gets away with doing THAT to me. Now it's payback time! I slowly leaned my face closer to the bars of my cage and said, "You know, I never realized how sweet you actually are..."

_'Egh, gag me'_

As I leaned closer, my eyes fluttered shut and I heard him say, "I knew you'd come around eventually" He leaned in as well. I started to collect spit in my mouth, so I could finish off my little prank. We were inches apart when I whispered "Yeah, you wish", then released the saliva. Guess where it landed...SMACK DAB IN THE MIDDLE OF HIS FACE!_** 'SCORE!' **_I cheered in my head. "Hey that's a pretty good look for you. It actually makes you look a little bit better", I taunted him.

He let out a growl and wiped away the spit with his other hand (the one he wasn't holding my face with). "Bad idea birdie", he growled.

He brought back his hand and slapped me with at least half of his strength (which is still pretty freakin' strong). It also didn't help that he had claws. They dug into my skin as his hand went across the left side of my face. "Well you're smart", I said spitting some blood to the side. "I thought you didn't want to ruin my _pretty face."_ He smacked me again and sent me flying into the side of my cage.

"There goes a few ribs", I hissed in pain. I've been through worse but it still hurts like H-E-double hockey sticks!

I felt his hands slip around my throat and lift me back up. Then he started to squeeze the life out of me. I took my hands away from my aching torso and tried to pry him off with what little strength I had left, but things don't always go the way we plan.

I started to feel weaker and my vision was getting blurry. My strength gave out and my arms flopped down to my sides.

Black creeped into my vision and right before I could say goodbye to the world, I heard a voice say "STOP! We need it in mid condition!". Then (with my amazing hearing) I heard the crack of a whip and his hands left my throat.

I took that opportunity to fill my oxygen deprived lungs with...well, oxygen. Duh. _'He said he needed me in good shape? Well a little late for that buddy!'_, I mentally yelled at him.

I was still desperately gasping for air when I looked up at the White-Coat. He was taller than me with black hair, pale skin and a name tag that read 'James'. He was standing a few feet away with a whip in his hand.

I looked at Paul to see blood oozing out from between his fingers and dripping into a puddle on the tiled floor.

He removed his hands from his abdominal area and hesitantly stood up straight, letting to world see his gashed stomach. "Yes sir. Sorry sir", he managed to say through his pain. I winced at the sight of his wound. I am NOT going to describe that, lets just say...it ain't per-ty.

I was still gawking at his wound when he started making his way over to my cage. I pressed myself up against the very back, thinking he was going to take me out for more testing. He picked up my cage and set it down, gently onto the cart the white-coat had probably brought in. He set it down _gently_... that part still bothers me.

_'What the heck? Usually the Erasers are all tough and don't take shiz from anyone, but one lash from a whip and they become Mr. Nice guy (wolf)!',_ I ranted in my head, _'I gotta get me one of those...'_

I was being pushed through many different hallways that looked exactly the same. White. White hallways, white floors, white doors! I don't think this fashion statements going to get very popular guys!

The school was one big maze that I could never escape from because... I **SUCK **at mazes. That's why when I run through them for tests, I tend to get shocked. A lot. That's also why I wasn't going to go through the forest in my dream.

After about 10 minutes of being pushed around we finally stopped. The white-coat put his hand on a machine that scanned his hand print. The door opened and revealed a fighting arena I had never been to before. I wonder what's so special about today?

It was about the size of three football fields and there were 5 rows of very bright lights on the ceiling. The ground was all grass and chains were nailed to the ground in random areas. That's where they would chain us up and make us fight Erasers. The last time I was chained I was fighting about 6 Erasers. I would normally be able to fight them no sweat, but being chained made things a _tinsy_ bit harder.

All the walls were white (surprise surprise) and lined with windows where they could observe us. They had an upper area with balconies so scientists could get an even better view.

They wheeled me to the center of the arena where another cage was already waiting. The experiment was a girl, that much I could tell. I couldn't get a good look at her face because the shadow of her cage covered most of it. Thanks to my great sight, I could see that her eyes were closed and she had her arms crossed in an irritated manner. It was obvious that she was pissed off.

_'Join the party_' I thought sarcastically.

Her blondish/brown hair was a few inches below her shoulders. She looked relatively normal. No fish tail, no claws, no horse feet! Just... normal.

I looked back at her face and saw that her eyes were open and locked on me. I gasped when I realized...

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**END UNTIL NEXT CHAPTER! CLIFFY!**

**Ember: Great...I'm an awesome, fire controlling avian hybrid who cant get herself through a maze! T.T**

**Me: *cough* Conceited *cough***  
**Ember: HEY! I only speak the truth so don't even go there!**  
**Me: Okay, okay! I get it, you're super awesome and what not.**  
**Ember: AND DON'T YOU FORGET IT!**  
**Me: ANYWAY...well that's all for now! I'm still SUPER sorry for the long wait and hopefully the next one won't take as long as this one did! so please bare with me :D DarkAngelDreams13**

**So when I went back through this chapter, I notice a lot of mistakes! And I did change a few things because I don't even remember writing half of it xD And yes, I am not the best at describing things but bear with me, I'm trying! I also know I'm not the best at names so yeaaa, like I said before I don't know when I will update but for now I'll be editing this chapter and the next!**

**-DarkAngelDreams13 7/27/11**


	3. Chapter 2

**Here I am! I'm back to edit this chapter because I felt that it was bleh! Anyway, you should probably ready chapter 1 and this one again just in case because I DID CHANGE A FEW THINGS! THIS IS NOT A NEW CHAPTER I JUST NEEDED TO EDIT IT A BIT! Don't get too excited (not like a lot of people read it anyway lol) **

**Well thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far and to all the people who put this on story alert! Sorry the alert you're getting won't be a new chapter though... Anyway I hope you guys are enjoying this story and please keep reading it *smiley face* -7/28/11**

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**Embers POV**

**Chapter 2**

Those eyes! They're the same as the girls' from my dream, except they weren't so gentle anymore. Instead they were shooting me a fiery glare that burned a hole straight through my soul. If looks could kill...

_'What the hell did I do? She's staring at me like I'm the one who put her in that freakin' cage.'_

As I continued looking at her I realized her gaze wasn't on me, but slightly to the right of me. I jerked my head around to see 2 White-Coats and 3 Erasers standing behind me.

Ohhh, now I get it... she wasn't glaring at me, but at the White-Coats -who I didn't even hear come into the room- next to me._ 'Wow, I must've been in DEEP thought if I didn't hear them walk in. Usually I hear them from a mile away! Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating...'_

I recognized one of the White-Coats named Alex. He's the one who _"deals with me __when I'm bad"_. In reality, he's the guy who makes the Erasers kick my ass until I answer their question(s). They assume that since I don't answer them in under 2 seconds, that I'm never going to answer them at all! And even when I do they still keep beating the crap out of me, claiming that it's my punishment.

Don't even ask me who the other White-Coat is because I have never seen that man a day in my life! Although he does have glasses...and he's old.

I know all of the Erasers though. I've fought each and every one of them. Now I know exactly what you're thinking...

"IF YOU'VE FOUGHT THEM BEFORE, THEN WHY THE HELL AREN'T THEY 6 FEET UNDER BY NOW?"

The only thing I can say to that is...GOOD QUESTION!

I really have no idea why I left them alive. I always have the opportunity to kill them, but I never do. All I do is knock them into next Tuesday, give 'em a few 3rd degree burns, break some bones here and there, kick them where the sun don't shine, etc. Guess I'm just one big softie huh?

Well, let's see who's here today.

There's Jake, the shaggy, brownish/red one. John is the smokey gray one with some white on his chest and stomach. Then Matt, he has the same design as John just with chocolate brown fur and a light brown underbelly.

I heard the sound of shuffling feet as the White-Coat, whose identity is a mystery, walked over to the the girl beside me. The girls' (whose name is also a mystery) glare followed his every move.

I saw her stiffen as he spoke, "It's good to see you again Ma-"

"Oh don't act like we haven't seen each other for 20 years! We just had that oh-so-lovely conversation about me and my 'destiny' yesterday!" she snapped, her voice dripping with venom. "Now, would you be so kind as to tell me why hell I'm here? Shouldn't you be running tests on us or something?" she yelled.

"Well Maximum," _Whoa! Stop the press! Did he just say Maximum? _"You're here because we need to update your files with more recent data. Such as flight speed, strength and so on."

"Whatever Jeb! My back up is on the way right now! And before you know it me and my family will be looong gone!"

"For now there is one more thing you need to do. We need you to push...", he looked at me and then turned to Alex. "Uh...what is her name again?"

"It's number is 1465-", he started saying but the man, Jeb, cut him off. "No, not her number, I mean what does she call herself? She's had to have come up with a name by now", he asked Alex. "No sir, we've never asked" he answered in monotone.

"Very well ", he sighed as he turned back towards me. "Do you have a name sweetie?", his kind voice ringing in my ears. But I barely heard the question because I was still in shock about who was in the cage next to mine! Either the girl sitting next to me was just some poser or she was THE Maximum Ride! I sure hope it was second one. We've all heard stories of how she and her family escaped and lived happily beyond these walls...

She and her flock are legends...wow... I always looked up to her.

Anyway, back to the matter at hand...

_'Since when are __**WHITE-COATS **__nice? This has to be some kind of trick...but I'll play along for now...' _I thought suspiciously.

"The name is E-" I said until I was rudely interrupted by Alex. "It will never answer you. It is such a rude experiment, we usually have to beat the answers out of it", he stated.

I had a death grip on the bars of my cage, trying to control myself...

That didn't work out too well.

"Well maybe if you gave me more then 3 seconds to answer your damn questions, you'd get a freaking answer!" I screamed, closing my eyes as my temperature slowly started rising. I heard Alex gulp and start to back away from my cage.

I felt the bars of my cage getting hotter by the second thanks to me. I was so pissed and the bars were so weak, that when I pulled on them they instantly broke and left a nice little hole in my cage.

I opened my eyes, which were probably crimson red instead of their usual blue/gray color and climbed out of my new front door.

I'm pretty sure they were still shocked about me breaking the cage, that they didn't see the fireball forming in my hand. I heard Alex gasp and knew he was the first one to notice my flame.

I looked at him with a smirk on my face and threw the fireball at him with lightning speed.

It went hurtling towards him as he yelled for the Erasers to get control of me. Right after that, he screamed bloody murder and fell to the ground, cradling his now burnt stomach.

About 10 more Erasers came in and lunged at me. I burned a good one or two of 'em but they still outnumbered me. They yanked my arms behind my back and tightly latched cold, heavy handcuffs onto my wrists. So tight, they started to get numb as blood trickled down them.

These weren't just any old ordinary pair of handcuffs; they were made especially for me. They would go to below freezing temperatures, which would force my core temp to drop down to a normal humans instead of my usual toasty 110 degrees Fahrenheit.

Then, they would give me a big elec-

***BOOM!***

The force from the blast sent people flying backwards and cages toppling over. Some humans flew into walls so hard they made cracks in the wall and were knocked unconscious. Ouch. I managed to stand back up and saw a huge hole leading to the outside world in the wall. I heard the sound of wings flapping and saw hawks swoop down and claw at confused White-Coats and Erasers, pulling out chunks of fur and skin.

A boy with long black hair, dressed in all black ran into the room and over to Maximums cage. I saw them say a few words to each other before he helped her escape.

My eyes went to the sky and I saw something more than just birds. There were 2 boys who had the happiest expression, as if they'd just won the lottery.

One was a boy who looked to be around 8 or 9, with golden blonde hair and mischievous blue eyes. The other boy, who was my age, had chin-length strawberry blonde hair and light blue eyes. He wore a proud smirk upon his features.

"ANGEL! ARE YOU OKAY?" a voice screeched. I turned around to see a mocha skinned girl with black curly haired running towards a little girl.

The younger girl had blonde hair and gorgeous sky blue eyes. She was basically the girl version of the boy in the sky. If I'm not mistaken, and this is just a _wild_ guess, I would say they're related.

From somewhere in the dust I heard, "Report- Noth- Alive- Soon- Plan-" I looked over and saw 2 figures. All I could see was their outlines, one huge and bulky, the other tall and skinny.

"Yo! You comin?" a voice yelled. I looked up to see all the kids from earlier flying out of the hole and the little blonde boy staring at me. I showed him my chained wrists and he understood that it would be a little hard to fly that way. "No problem, wait one sec. IGGY!" The boy from earlier, Iggy, flew over and the little boy explained the situation. They swooped down next to me and started messing with my handcuffs. Then, in 10 seconds flat, I was free.

"Wow, thanks." I smiled before we all took off.

It took me a few seconds to realize this, but I was actually free. I was flying for my own free will, not for some stupid test. I was flying under a rainbow of colors. Reds, oranges, yellows, purples and pinks! So this is what a sunset is like.

We flew in silence until Maximum thought we were far enough away from the school. She gave an order to land, and so we did. When we landed in the clearing all eyes were on me.

"Who are you?" Maximum questioned, glaring at me.

_'Again with the glare? Jeez! Lighten up'_

_"_My names Ember. Now who are all of you?" I replied.

"I'm asking the questions here and that's none of yo-" she was interrupted by the little blonde girl saying, "Come on Max! Don't be so mean she's not gonna hurt us. She's an experiment too. Hi! My name is Angel and that's Max (anger management girl), Fang (emo boy), Iggy (pretty boy), Nudge (mocha girl), and the Gasman or Gazzy as we call him (I don't wanna know...)."

"Hi! I'm Nudge, oh well I guess Angel just said that but I still wanted to introduce myself. So how long have you been in the school? Do you have any special powers? Did you pick your name or did they give you that name because of your wing color? You have pretty wings by the way. They looked like they were on fire when we were flying back her." She gasped,"What if they really were on fi- MPHM" Iggy plopped his hand over her mouth. My mind was still processing everything she just said. _'Holy jeez, she said all that in one breath? Does she even need air..._'

Angel giggled, "Nudge is always like that. She could talk for hours and hours."

I smiled awkwardly, _'It's like she knew what I was-'_

"Thinking? Yup! I'm a mind reader," She smiled brightly.

"Enough chit chat guys. We need to get going, so I'm gonna get straight to the point. I don't want you here, no matter how good Angel says you are. This is my family and you're not part of it, so _leave_," her icy tone just as bad as her glare.

"But Max!," the brown skinned girl whined. "Why can't she come? She's just like us and besides, we need another girl around here."

"I'm the leader and what I say goes. She can't come with us. We have enough mouths to feed anyway," Max snapped.

Nudge and Angels hopeful faces dropped.

"Look, she's right. She has enough on her plate right now. Besides, I'm a big girl. I can take care of myself." I smirked. "See ya!" I gave a wave and with that I was gone.

I'm not sure where I'm gonna go but I'll just go with the flow.

I flew for a good 3 hours before landing in a forest. _'Ugh! Today was a long day and I haven't eaten a thing! But I'm too tired to hunt right now! I'll figure something out in the morning...' _I laid down exhausted, staring at the now navy blue sky. There were so many stars in the sky! Like someone just threw glitter into the air and it all got stuck there. The crescent moon finished off this beautiful peace of artwork. _'It's official! Night is now my favorite time of day...'_ I fell asleep listening to an orchestra of crickets.

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**Wow! TONS of mistakes in this one! But I believe I've fixed them! By the way, I know that handcuff thing sounds kind of stupid but please just go with it! I'm not a very creative person xD I also know I'm no good at name, I just write down what pops in my head. Well I hope it sounds a little better, I'm working hard on this! Until next time I update! by the way, leave a review ^.^**

**~DarkAngelDreams13~ 7/28/11**


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